Comics have a grand history of featuring America’s fighting forces, going back to the medium’s earliest days to more recent, rebooted war titles. I read a bunch of these growing up, and still have a soft spot for the genre, particularly DC’s books. Enemy Ace, The Unknown Soldier, Weird War Tales — I ate all that stuff up. My favorite, though — without question — was Sgt. Rock.

Slogging through World War II Europe, Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. had that war-weariness you imagine every soldier reaches after enough time on the front lines. And while they fought heroically, selflessly — like their flashier super-powered cousins in the rest of the DC Universe — they did something else. They died. Most of the core characters would survive from issue to issue, but it was never a sure bet. Reading Sgt. Rock meant knowing that war isn’t fair, and no one was safe. Add to that Joe Kubert’s gritty, you-are-there artwork and you’ve got a compelling, sometimes harrowing, war comic.

Of course, the title would sometimes dip into the superhero silliness of the main DCU. Because how else would Sgt. Rock meet Superman? Heck, it would probably take a bomb hidden in a French award, time travel, amnesia, and some good ol’ fashioned Nazi-fightin’ to make that work. Luckily, writer Cary Bates and penciller Joe Staton put all that (and more) together for DC Comics Presents #10, in a story called “The Miracle Man of Easy Company” — enjoy, and happy Memorial Day!